


A Gay Old Time at the Mini Golf

by Annide



Series: 911 Weeks [2]
Category: 9-1-1 (TV)
Genre: 911week2020, Bisexual Evan "Buck" Buckley, Coming Out, Everyone Is Gay, Fluff, Fun, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-07
Updated: 2020-07-07
Packaged: 2021-03-04 02:08:10
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,004
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24895927
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Annide/pseuds/Annide
Summary: When Buck gets woken up by the sounds of people in his apartment, he doesn't expect the day to turn out so fun.
Relationships: Evan "Buck" Buckley & Henrietta "Hen" Wilson, Evan "Buck" Buckley & Karen Wilson, Evan "Buck" Buckley & Michael Grant (9-1-1 TV), Henrietta "Hen" Wilson & Michael Grant & Karen Wilson, Henrietta "Hen" Wilson/Karen Wilson
Series: 911 Weeks [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1808203
Comments: 10
Kudos: 92
Collections: 9-1-1 Tales





	A Gay Old Time at the Mini Golf

**Author's Note:**

> Written for 911week Day 2: "You scared the shit out of me" + fun

The sun was still low in the sky when Buck woke up to the sound of a door closing. At first, he thought it had been part of whatever dream he was having, but then he heard noises coming from downstairs. There were people in his apartment. He could hear steps and whispers, but when he looked, he saw no one. They had to be in the living room. But who could possibly be there? What kind of robbers would come in the morning? And he would’ve recognised Eddie and Christopher. They were here often enough, he knew well the sounds they made, how their steps sounded on his floor, how their voices sounded in a whisper.

His first instinct was to look for his phone, to at least text Eddie about this, just in case, but he’d forgotten it on the coffee table last night and had been too tired to go back for it when he noticed. He headed downstairs, slowly and as quietly as he could. Halfway to the kitchen, he crouched down so he could look through the stairs into the living room. He jumped when he saw them, catching their attention.

“You scared the shit out of me.” He said as he walked down the rest of the way and joined them.

“I told them we should knock.” Michael said. “Great apartment, by the way.”

“Yeah, how come you never had us over before?” Karen asked. She was sitting on the couch next to Hen.

“There’s just more space to have everyone at Athena and Bobby’s or at Eddie’s. How come you never invite us to your house?”

“Right, that’s a fair point.”

“What are you doing here anyway? How did you get in?”

“Bobby let me borrow his key so we could surprise you.” Hen said.

“Yeah, that is exactly what I had in mind when I gave him that key in case of an emergency.”

“I can’t believe you didn’t give him that key so three gays could come in, wake you up and take you out. This is specifically what I hope will happen whenever I trust someone with a key to my apartment.” Michael said. “Wait, Athena and Bobby have my key too, I’m not safe either.”

“I’m just happy you didn’t have anyone here.” Karen said.

“Pretty sure Eddie would’ve said something about finding him in bed with someone if that ever happened. Sounds to me like he lets himself in pretty regularly.” Hen said.

“Yeah, it’s probably not a good sign that he feels so comfortable walking in here, where my room has no walls, with Christopher, without warning, as if it was his apartment as well as mine.”

Hen and Karen exchanged a look, and Michael made a face like he suddenly understood something they’d talked about before. Buck wondered what it was about, what conversation they’d been having before he came down. It was probably something about how long it had been since he’d been in a relationship. Buck knew everyone had an opinion on that, but it was just hard to find someone.

“So, you still haven’t told me, why are you guys here?”

“We thought it’d be nice to spend time together, go out, have fun.” Hen said.

“And by that, she means humiliate ourselves playing mini golf.” Karen said. “Now go get dressed so we can go.”

Buck ran back upstairs to change. He thought it was strange they would want to hang out with him instead of Bobby and Athena, or Chimney and Maddie, their actual friends. Sure, Buck always got along great with Hen, but he never spent that much time around Karen and Michael. He only ever saw them at parties with everyone else. But no matter how weird he thought it was, he was excited he’d get to know them better. He always liked making new friends.

They grabbed a quick breakfast on the way. It was clear pretty early on that Buck was terrible at mini golf. Hen was okay, she clearly knew what she was doing, though it didn’t always work out. She was still third, tied with Karen who was a wildly inconsistent player. She successfully got her ball in with only a shot or two on holes that seemed difficult, but spent forever on the easy ones. No one had an explanation for it. Michael was winning on beginner’s luck only. It was hard to believe a man his age, with kids, had never played mini golf before, but it looked like it was working out pretty well for him.

“I can’t see my ball out here. Did it go back to the start?” Buck asked, standing on the other side of a child-size tunnel they had to send their ball through.

Michael and Hen were waiting near the hole, having had their turn already, suppressing their laughs the best they could, because they knew what was about to happen.

“No, I think it just stopped inside. You’ll have to go in to hit it again.” Karen said.

“What? I can’t fit in there. It’s not even high enough for Denny to stand. You want me to crawl through there and hit the ball? How am I supposed to do that lying down?”

“I don’t know, maybe you should’ve thought of that when it was time to hit the ball hard enough for it to get through.”

“What good are those nice big strong arms for if you can’t even hit a ball hard enough for it to make it through a tunnel?” Michael joked.

“I was worried about hitting it too hard.” Buck pouted, but he walked back around to Karen to crawl into the tunnel. They heard him swear when he accidentally hit himself in the face with his putter.

“I can hear you laughing. That’s not nice, you all try and hit a ball in a tunnel barely bigger than the length of your putter.”

“Fortunately for us, we aren’t bad enough at mini golf to end up in that situation.” Hen managed between loud chuckles.

The rest of the game wasn’t as eventful. Buck never really got the hang of it, but he had a lot of fun. Michael won and he was extremely proud of himself for it. But it was nothing compared to the smile that appeared on his face when he looked at his phone as they were heading back to the car. Like his entire body lit up.

“So, everyone down to go eat?” Karen asked.

“Oh, I would’ve loved to, but I just got an offer for a lunch date and, as much as I enjoyed hanging out with all of you this morning, I think I’ll go.” Michael said.

“Is it with that hot doctor you got stuck in the elevator with?” Karen did a little wiggle, while Hen let out a teasing ‘ooh!’

“You’ve never even met the guy, you don’t know what he looks like.”

“So, he’s not hot?” Buck said.

“He is, that’s not the point. You know what, I’ll just go. Have fun.”

Michael left on foot, he was meeting his date not far from where they were. The rest of them climbed in Hen’s car. They settled on getting take out from a small restaurant and bringing it back to Buck’s place so they wouldn’t have to be surrounded by a crowd. Hen and Karen talked about how excited they were for Michael that he’d met someone, while Buck ate his burger, staring down and listening.

“Hey, Buckaroo, are you okay? You’ve been silent for a while.” Hen said.

“I’m fine. I just... He’s lucky, you know, he just met some guy in an elevator who just happens to both also like guys and be single. Most of us don’t have it that easy.” Buck shook his head. “I’m sorry, I’m bringing down the mood. It’s great, Michael deserves to be happy. I’m excited for him.”

“You can be both, you know.” Karen said, putting her hand on Buck’s arm. “You can be happy and excited for him and wish you could have something like that too. It’s a perfectly normal way to feel. You’re right. He is lucky. But, don’t worry, too much, you’ll find someone too someday.”

“What if I already kinda did, but they don’t feel the same? How do you get over someone who could never love you the same way?”

“How do you know they can’t reciprocate?”

“I just do, okay?” Buck’s tone came off a little more annoyed than he intended it to. He sighed. It felt like there was this weight over his shoulders and he couldn’t support it any longer. He needed to get it off. “Look, I... I know I’ve never mentioned it before, and Maddie wouldn’t say anything, but I... uh... I’m bi.”

“Yeah, we figured. Why do you think we invited you to this all gays outing today?”

“What?”

“I just don’t understand why you didn’t feel comfortable telling us sooner.” Hen said, taking his hand in hers. “It’s fine, you’re allowed to take all the time you need to come out. But you had to know we’d accept you and love you just the same.”

“I know, Hen. I wasn’t hiding it, I just felt like the longer we knew each other, the more it felt like I was lying to everybody. Like I was pretending to be someone I’m not, but at the same time, I let you build an idea of me in your head that I was scared to correct. For some reason, I was worried it would change things. It was stupid.”

“No, it wasn’t. Your feelings are never stupid, Buck.” Hen stood and came to wrap him into a hug. Karen looked at them with a smile in her face, still holding on to his arm, and holding Hen’s hand.

“Wait, you said this was an all gays outing. You meant all as in everyone invited is queer or all as in everyone we know who is queer is invited?”

“The latter, I guess. Why?” Karen said.

“You didn’t invite... Never mind, it doesn’t matter. It’s not like I didn’t already know anyway.”

“Did I miss something?” Karen looked confused, but Hen was smiling as she let go of Buck and went back to her seat.

“Eddie wasn’t home when we went by to invite him. That’s why we had to ask Bobby for his key.”

“Oh.” Karen said. “Someone has a crush.”

“I don’t have a crush. I just... No, we’re not talking about this.”

“I’m sure he feels the same way.” Hen said.

“I said I don’t wanna talk about it.”

“See, that’s why you can’t have a nice lunch date like Michael and his hot doctor, because you won’t talk to the man you have a crush on.” Karen said.

Buck stood and walked away from them. He stopped near the stairs, putting his hand on the rail to steady himself. Admitting to being bisexual was one thing, and it had been nerve-wracking enough despite how sure he was that they’d react well to it. Admitting to the fact he fell for his best friend, who he also happened to work with, was an entirely different thing, however. He felt exposed and uncomfortable. It didn’t matter that Hen and Karen thought it was great and that Eddie felt the same. He wasn’t ready to be quite that open. There was too much of a risk of getting hurt and he couldn’t handle that at the moment.

“Hey, it’s okay, Buck, take your time. We’re here for you.” Hen came to stand next to him and reached across his back to put her hand on his shoulder.

Buck turned to look at her and Karen, both smiling in a supportive way. He felt warm and loved and supported like never before. He knew they would be right by his side no matter what happened, no matter how long it took for him to figure things out.

**Author's Note:**

> Sequel: [Costco Has Everything, Even a Date](https://archiveofourown.org/works/27153368%22)


End file.
